Islamic Thought & Philosophy

The First of the Modern Ottomans blends biography with intellectual history. On the one hand, it is the story of an Ottoman life – the life of the scribe, ambassador, and prolific historian Ahmed Vâsıf (ca. 1735-1806), a man who improbably rose from obscurity in Baghdad to travel the empire, fight its wars, advise its sultans, and, in time, write its history. As a full-scale biography, the book is a rarity for the field of Ottoman history and reconstructs Vâsıf’s life, career, and opinions through meticulous research in both Ottoman and European sources. On the other hand, The First of the Modern Ottomans is also one of the first detailed intellectual studies of the early modern Ottoman Empire. Weaving together Vâsıf’s life and thought with the larger intellectual currents of the day – especially at the court of Sultan Selim III in Istanbul – it explores central debates among the Ottoman ruling elite over Europe, political reform, war and peace, justice, and the empire’s renewal. Vâsıf’s life reveals a vital response to the empire’s challenges at the turn of the nineteenth century – one that was novel and deeply enmeshed in Islamic philosophy, ethics, and statecraft.

Özet Muhammed İkbâl'in düşüncesinde Tanrı ve evrene ilişkin bir açıklama yapabilmek için onun benlik felsefesini bilmek hayati önem taşır. Çünkü o, Tanrı ve evren söz konusu olduğunda tüm açıklamalarını ben felsefesi üzerinden yapar. Onun benlik felsefesinde Tanrı ve evrendeki her şey bir bene sahiptir. Evrendeki işleyişi anlamak ve varlığa ilişkin bir şeyler söylemek için benin mahiyeti, işlevleri, salahiyetleri ve sınırlarının açıklanması gerekir. Çalışmamızda benin mahiyeti, insanın şuurlu tecrübesinden hareketle sahip olduğu eylemler sistemi olarak tanımlanmış olup benin insanda tecrübeler yoluyla açığa çıktığı, insanı sahip olabileceği en yüksek noktaya götürebileceği İkbâl'den alınan şiir ve düz yazı örnekleriyle açıklanmıştır. Aynı zamanda insana özgürlüğünü ve Tanrı'yla iletişim imkânını vermek bakımından benin metafiziksel yönü açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır. Abstract In the thinking of Muhammad Iqbal, it is vital to know his self-philosophy in order to make an account of God and the universe. Because he make all their explanations through self-philosophy when God and the universe are concerned. God and everything in the universe has an ego in his self-philosophy. It needs to explain the nature, functions, capabilities and boundaries of ego in order to understand what is running of the universe and to say something about it. In our work, the nature of ego is defined as a system of actions in which a person has act of conscious experience. It's explained by examples of poetry and plain writing from Iqbal that it can be brought to the highest point that person can have, which ego has come to open in person through experiences. At the same time it has been tried to explain the metaphysical aspect of ego in terms of freedom and communication with God.

Cumhuriyet devrinin en velut düşünürlerinden biri olan Hilmi Ziya Ülken'in (ö. 1974) zengin külliyatı içinde İslam düşüncesine dair çalışmaları önemli bir yekûn tutmaktadır. Türk Tefekkür Tarihi'nden (1933) İslam Felsefesi: Kaynakları ve Tesirleri'ne (1967) uzanan otuz yılı aşkın süreçte Ülken, İslam düşüncesiyle ilgili telif, tercüme ve neşir türünde pek çok eser (kitap ve makale) kaleme alarak bu alanda geniş bir etki alanı oluşturmuştur. Erken dönem eserlerinde İslam düşüncesini daha ziyade "Türklük" fikri etrafında ele alan Ülken, felâsife ile sınırlı bir İslam düşüncesine her zaman mesafeli durmuş ve kelam, tasavvuf ve fıkhı da içeren geniş bir İslam düşüncesi tasavvuru geliştirmiştir. Felâsifenin pek de orijinal bulmadığı ve 13. yüzyıl sonrasında hayatiyetini kaybettiğini düşündüğü görüşleri karşısında o, tasavvuf geleneğini ön plana çıkarmıştır. Bu çalışma, Ülken'in İslam düşüncesiyle ilgili kaleme aldığı kitap çalışmalarını yayın tarihlerine göre ana hatlarıyla inceleyerek bu eserler arasındaki ilişkileri ve Ülken'in bu alana dair temel yaklaşımlarını tespit ve tasvir etmeyi amaçlamaktadır.

This thesis (1999) delves into Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd's hermeneutics of the Qur'an, which was, at that time, not yet systematically formulated. It tries to reconstruct his theories of text and interpretation based on his works, and gives some examples in which he implemented his hermeneutics, such as the issues of  evil forces (jinn, shayâtîn, sihr and hasad), ribâ and interest, slavery,  polygamy, and women's Inheritance. Abu Zayd's contribution to Qur'anic hermeneutics is important in developing critical Qur'anic scholarship.

The Concept of the Perfect Man in Islamic Mysticism, Islamic Mysticism, Mysticism, Islamic Irfan, Ifran, Gnosicm, Perfect Man, Al-Insan al-Kamil, Ibn Arabi, Muyuddin, Fusus al-Hikam, Jandi, Qaysari, Khawarizmi, Imam Khomeini, Naqd al-Nosus,
http://alhassanain.org/english/?com=book&id=831

The unique copy of al-Majālis al-sab‘ bayna al-Shaykh wa al-‘Āmirī (Ragıp Paşa Library 1461, ff. 150a-162b) consists of seven sessions including forty-one questions and answers. While the name of al-‘Āmirī (d. 381/992) does not appear in the texts except for the title, we understand from the phrases at the end that the al-Shaykh in the title corresponds to Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037). In this article, I will broadly describe structural characteristics of al-Majālis and examine the historical and geographical possibility of the philosophical debate between al-‘Āmirī and Ibn Sīnā outlined in al-Majālis. Then, I will compare the philosophical approach in the first three sessions of al-Majālis, where the stages of coming of the universe into being are treated, with al-‘Āmirī’s extant works. I can talk two principal conclusions of the article: (i) It was historically and geographically possible that young Ibn Sīnā and his older contemporary al-Āmirī could make the debate told in al-Majālis. (ii) The examination and comparison for the first three sessions of al-Majālis shows that the answers are mostly consistent with the approach of al-‘Āmirī according to his extant works and this leads me to conclude that the one asks questions or comments is Ibn Sīnā while the one answers is al-‘Āmirī.

İslam felsefe geleneğinin en etkili ismi olarak kabul edilen İbn Sînâ’nın (ö. 428/1037), felsefî/aklî bilimler tasnifine dair Kitâbu aksâmi’l-hikme ve tafsîlihâ’sı (literatürde yaygın olarak bilinen ismiyle Risâle fî aksâmi’l-ulûmi’l-akliyye’si), onun bu alana dair kaleme aldığı bilinen “yegâne” müstakil eser olarak hem klasik hem de modern dönemde sadece İbn Sînâ’nın değil, genel olarak felâsifenin felsefe tasavvurunun ve bilimler tasnifinin tespit ve yorumlanmasında da doğrudan veya dolaylı olarak kendisine sıklıkla müracaat edilen bir eser olmuştur. İbn Sînâ tarafından ne zaman kaleme alındığını bilmediğimiz Aksâmü’l-hikme’nin hem tasnif hem de muhteva itibariyle içerdiği yenilikler, onun, eş-Şeyhu’r-reîs’in yetişkinlik döneminde kaleme alındığı ihtimalini güçlendirmektedir. Pek çok defa basılan ve iki tenkitli neşri bulunan Aksâmü’l-hikme’nin bu çalışmada sunulan tenkitli neşri, İbn Sînâ’nın eserlerine dair görece erken tarihli mecmualar içinde yer alan iki nüshasına dayanmaktadır: (a) İstanbul Üniversitesi Nadir Eserler Kütüphanesi A[rapça] Y[azmalar], nr. 4755, vr. 83b-91b ve (b) Bursa İnebey Kütüphanesi, Hüseyin Çelebi, nr. 1194, vr. 152b-155b.

Philosophy tries to answer the questions regarding the source of being. This endeavour reached the highest point with Aristotle in ancient Greece. Our claim is that Aristotle contructs his ontologic theory as the truth by using a historical fiction. Furthermore, being explicable becomes the most important feature of a theory. In modern period this historical fiction has been used in the opposite way. Being explicable and historical fiction brings a question that whether the truth is constructed or explored by philosopher? Our claim is that although different from each other, both periods show that the metaphysical aspect of philosophy inevitably runs its own destruction. Lastly in this article we discuss this situation within the context of Islamic thought perspective. In this section we emphasize the importance of historical fiction in order to resurrect Islamic thought. Furthermore, through an article of Omer Turker we criticise contemporary Islamic thought in Turkey.

This article explores the development of Saudi Arabia during King Fahd's era through research which highlights the challenges and reasons behind the decline in achieving five year plans. Saudi Arabia is one of those Middle Eastern countries, based on a traditional Islamic Law system, where the process of innovation is extremely slow. The purpose of the study was to focus on the policy implementations and improvements effected during the era of King Fahd and how they changed the economy of the Kingdom. The study also uncovered some of the achievements and limitations of the initiative to educate women in their chosen fields. The impact of the innovative development plans were explored, with education, industrial development, and trade identified as core focuses during the King Fahd era. The focus on these three aspects essentially resulted in the development of Saudi Arabia's economic processes, although some failures suggested the need for further improvements through the application of new strategies. Moreover, there was a need for developmental procedures in education, industry and trade areas that ultimately affected the economy of the Kingdom.

This paper aims to clarify the meaning of 'renovation of religious discourse' through an analysis of the concept and some related concepts in general, and more specifically by defining the disciplines of this renovation and their importance in determining its meaning. The paper adopts the thesis that these disciplines play a pivotal role in determining the nature, meaning and possibilities of renovating religious discourse. To demonstrate this thesis, the paper distinguishes between internal disciplines and external disciplines. Internal disciplines lie within the religious text itself and in the hermeneutic circle between understanding parts of the text and understanding it as a whole, between understanding and pre-understanding, between the inside and the outside. In talking about external disciplines, the paper focuses mainly on the role of the ruling and/or hegemonic political and economic powers and authorities. The paper concludes that renovating religious discourse is a political and institutional issue rather than a purely religious one related to individuals, and that it is conditional on the state and (the reformation of) its political system, and the extent of its actual adoption of the concept of democracy, and the extent to which it protects freedoms, differences, and pluralism.

Alija Ali Izetbegović (1925-2003) is one of the outstanding Muslim thinkers in recent history who have re-conceptualized the Islamic worldview and ethos in the context of the contemporary world on the one hand and critically reflected upon the modern Western civilization, on the other. Izetbegović conceives Islam as a system representing a middle path between Christian spiritualism and materialism of modern civilization. However, like any profound philosophical system, his thought requires exposition and interpretation, which the present paper ventures to undertake. Specifically, the paper inquires whether and how far his vision of Islam facilitates coexistence between Muslims and the others, especially regarding the Muslims living in Western societies. The query is crucial because some writers have accused Izetbegović of being a fundamentalist who pursued an agenda of monolithic Islamic culture with little room for meaningful participation of non-Muslims. The paper concludes that c...

Eine Idee kann mehr als einen einzigen Anfang haben, genau wie
viele Wege zum gleichen Ziel hinführen können. Ein Ziel ist in mancher Hinsicht mehr ein dynamisches Befinden als eine konkrete statische Ziellinie. Davon leben Ideen und gewinnen Nachhaltigkeit, wie der Wald seine Seligkeit in der Vielfalt findet.
So ist die Umwelt als Bewandtnis und Begriff. Einerseits spricht
man von der Umwelt und meint dabei seine enge Umgebung. Andererseits spricht man von der Umwelt und meint hier das ganze
Universum.
Spricht man von der Umwelt im Islam, so reicht es meines Erachtens
nicht aus, danach zu fragen, wie oft oder in welchem Kontext
dieser Begriff in dem Koran oder der Sunna vorkommt. Es ist
mehr von Bedeutung zu erfahren, wie die Muslime vor dem Hintergrund
ihrer religiösen Überzeugung in der Gegenwart mit dem Thema „Umwelt und Umweltschutz“ umgehen. Es stellt sich die Frage, welche Handlungswege die Muslime begehen, um das Leben auf diesem Planeten zu bewahren und welche Rolle dabei religiöse Argumentationen spielen.
Wege zu begehen sind Anstrengungen, wozu Muslime verpflichtet
sind. Jeder Muslim und jede Muslima ist nach dem religiösen
Konzept der ḥisba aufgefordert, entsprechend seiner/ihrer Mögichkeiten (wusʿ) und Fähigkeiten (qudra) zu handeln, um das Gute auf dieser Erde zu fördern und das Verwerfliche zu unterbinden.
Dies gilt auch für die Umwelt und den Umweltschutz. Als engagierte
kreative Anstrengungen kann man sie als eine Art iğtihād verstehen
und als Förderung des Guten kann man sie außerdem islamisch
theologisch als ḥisba erkennen. Iǧtihād bedeutet sprachlich
„Anstrengung, um ein Ziel zu erreichen“. Es wird auch als terminus
technicus der islamischen Normenlehre verwendet. Damit ist die
Findung von Normen durch eigenständige Urteilsbemühung gemeint,
was eine gewisse Kreativität implizit.
An dieser Stelle handelt es sich beim Begriff iğtihād mehr um die
kreative Umsetzung von Normen und zwar beim Umweltschutz.
Gleichzeitig bedeutet der Begriff Dschihad etymologisch ebenfalls
die Anstrengung und Bemühung, ein Ziel zu erreichen. Auch wird
darunter eine individuelle Bemühung um den Glauben (großer
Dschihad) oder zum moralischen Handeln und Mission verstanden.
Der Umweltschutz gehört zweifelsohne zum edlen moralischen
Handeln und aus islamischer theologischer Perspektive des
Verhältnisses zwischen Mensch und Natur – wie es später erläutert
wird – zur islamischen Mission. Daher spricht man nicht nur vom
Öko-Islam, sondern auch vom Öko-Dschihad als eine Selbstbezeichnung
einiger muslimischer Öko-Aktivistinnen und -Aktivisten vor allem in Großbritannien, wo der Begriff Öko-Dschihad zum ersten Mal als Slogan für eine Kampagne der Islamic Foundation for Ecology and nvironmental Sciences (IFEES) in Birmingham verwendet wurde. Der Slogan der Kampagne lautete „It’s a campaign! It’s a film! It’s Jihad!“.

Le discours religieux musulman est pris dans une fièvre idéologique depuis au moins deux siècles, réagissant avec une violence verbale aux évolutions sociales, ce qui atteste d'une crise culturelle profonde. La domination européenne a révélé la crise, mais elle n’en est pas la cause. Celle-ci est à rechercher dans l’histoire intellectuelle de la culture religieuse au cours de laquelle l’orthodoxie officielle avait interdit la philosophie comme activité intellectuelle autonome. Le rapport de l’islam à la philosophie est complexe, dans la mesure où 'ilm al kalam (l’étude de la parole de Dieu) est une philosophie religieuse ou théologie philosophique. C’est une riche construction intellectuelle qui a eu une influence structurante sur les représentations culturelles à travers lesquelles les croyants percevaient le monde et distinguaient le bien et le mal. Ces représentations sont encore actives dans la mémoire collective bien qu’elles subissent des changements à la suite des transformations sociales des deux derniers siècles. Elles donnent un sens à l’existence dans la mesure où elles enseignent ce qui est moral et ce qui ne l’est pas. Elles indiquent ce que doit être l’ordre symbolique en donnant à chacun le sentiment d’être en conformité avec la raison, la nature et Dieu. Auteur : Lahouari Addi.

My brief introduction to Islamic philosophy discusses this complex branch of world philosophy as a tradition in its own right not to be solely measured by the standards of Western thought. It therefore begins with two surveys (one historic, the other systematic) in which Sunni and Shi'a world views, rational theology (Kalam), legal reasoning, Islamic Humanism (adab)... are all acknowledged as intellectual spaces conducive to philosophic ideas. The surveys are followed by sections dedicated to individual philosophers ranging from al-Kindi to al-Ghazzali, including the Andalusians.

The International Research Journal of Islamic Civilization (IRJIC) is visualised as an academic and scientific publication devoted to articles and other informed studies on Islamic civilization.  The comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach of IRJIC is aimed at formulating new theories and proposing new discourses in relation to the study of Islamic civilization in its diverse features, in the form of its historical, intellectual and cultural manifestations. One of the aims of IRJIC is to create an intellectual space shareable by scholars of different orientations, traditions and historical and cultural backgrounds, in order to promote the exchange of ideas, innovative research methodologies and theories.  IRJIC is an Open Access Journal and consequentially the users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, or link the full texts of the articles, but not to reproduce them in any way without contacting and asking permission of the publisher.

Although European travelers to the Ottoman Empire often noted the inhabitants’ “fatalism,” historians have never seriously examined this intellectual phenomenon. Whether or not we can credit such sources, the testimony of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Turkish and Arabic sources points to a robust debate over fate, free will, and predestination. What were the reasons behind these discussions? What issues were at stake? This article outlines the context and content of the debate. It then offers some observations about the wider significance of free will and predestination in the Ottoman intellectual universe – particularly their relation to early modern bureaucratic and military reform.

چكيده
ابن سينا در آثار مختلف خود به كتاب الحكمة المشرقية اشاره كـرده اسـت. برخـى متفكـران
سلامى نيز به اين كتاب استشهاد كردهاند. وی در اين كتاب ديدگاههای خاص خود را با صراحت
بيان كرده است. بنا بر روشى كه ابنسينا داشت، و برخى آثار خود را در آثار ديگر خلاصه مىكرد،
اين كتاب نيز خلاصهای از كتاب شفاء است. درباره معنـا و مفهـوم «مشـرقى» در انديشـههـای
ابن سينا نيز ديدگاههای مختلفى بيان شده است، ولى نگارنده معتقد است «مشـرقى» بـه معنـای
«اسلامى» است. در بخش ماهيت حكمت مشرقى هم بايـد گفـت كـه ابنسـينا، چنانكـه يـك
فيلسوف مشايى به معنای ارسطويى نيست، همانطور كه هانری كربن و پيروان او معتقدند يـك
فيلسوف خسروانى هم نيست. لذا منظور ابن سينا از حكمت مشرقى همان حكمت اسلامى بـودن
آن است.

Türkiye'de izlenen laiklik politikasını birçok yönden tartışmak mümkündür. Ancak İslam algısı ve yaşantısı konusunda meydana gelen değişmeleri sadece laiklik politikasına b'ağlamak ya da laiklik politikalarını tüm olumsuzlukların nedeni olarak görmek süreci açıklamaya yetmez. Bugün dindarlık sıralamasında Türkiye dünya ülkeleri arasında en ön sıralarda yer almaktadır. Bunun üzerinde dikkatle durmak lazım.  Modrernleşme ve sekülerleşme süreci, tüm dünyada olduğu gibi ülkemizde de din algımızı ve dindarlığımızı değiştirmiştir. Ama dindarlığımız bu yeni kalıplar içinde devem etmektedir.

The idea of the Suspended Man in Space or Suspended man in the air is also known with titles of Flying Man or Floating Man and Into Thin Air. Avicenna introduces this idea in The Book of Healing, and Remarks and Admonitions (Pointers and Reminders or Al-Ishārāt wa al-Tanbīhāt), and a treatise on Knowledge of the Rational Soul, and in the Risālah aḍḥawīyah fī amr al-miʻād  or Judgment Day. This repetition reflects the importance of this idea in his mind. He also points out this argument in his two writings, Al-Taʿlīqāt and Discussions (al-Mubāḥathāt), which contain his dialogues with his disciples, and provides explanations about some criticisms sustained against the idea. This indicates that, since that time, the idea, which is considered one of Avicenna’s innovations, has been debated and criticized.
we should point out that the idea of the suspended man in space proposed by Ibn Sina, which has had extensive applications in the Muslim world and the Western world to the present time, intends to demonstrate an immaterial soul for man; the soul that perceives itself as intuitive knowledge and is not a body or a part of the body. In this paper, four different interpretations of this idea were presented. For any further critique and analysis of the Avicennian idea of the suspended man, these four readings must be initially taken into account. Among these readings, some considered philosophical and abstract aspects and some considered empirical aspects. With the simultaneous attention to these interpretations, we can gain a more comprehensive view of this argument and, thus, take a more in-depth look at the vital matter of the human soul and its immateriality.

Mullā Ṣadrāov ambiciozni pokušaj da definira znanje kao modalitet egzistencije omogućava mu da podvede noetiku pod ontologiju te sprječava da se njegova epistemologija stropošta na filozofiju subjektivizma. To Mullā Ṣadrā postiže čvrsto se držeći svoje gradacijske ontologije. On predstavlja znanje činom sudjelovanja radije negoli reprezentacijom, iskustvom posvjedočenja, a ne apstrakcijom. A to još jednom potvrđuje da nema fajde od epistemologije bez odgovarajuće ontologije.

Irtifaq is means being soft, convenient, kind, helping, benefitting, etc. The word irtifaq refers to adopting convenient ways, helping devices, beneficial methods, useful technology, and good manners in one's life. Shah Wali-Allah uses it in a special sense denoting different stage of socio-economic development of mankind. According to him, starting from simple primitive village life to an international community, the socio-economic development of human society can be divided into four stages. The first stage is dominated by simple economic struggle while the last stage is developed to maintain just political order on international level, to safeguard the socioeconomic interests of different states and establish peace and justice among them. All economic ideas of Shah Wali-Allah are related, in some way or the other, to his concept of irtifaqat or stages of socio-economic development. We will examine his economic ideas under different stages.